Friday, January 31, 2014

Fr. James Martin, SJ hosted The Jesuit Collaborative's first-ever
Google Hangout on the topic of Prayer. TJC sponsored the discussion in
conjunction with America Magazine, for which Fr. Martin serves as editor-at-large. The Hangout, titled How Do You Pray, consisted of a
fruitful and honest discussion on how prayer impacts our daily lives.
Participants were asked to share ways they each pray, which gave us a
wonderful look at differences and similarities we all share in our
conversations with God.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Pope Francis recently proclaimed his favorite Jesuit, Peter Favre, a saint, short-circuiting the typical“first recruit,”
and he tutored the Jesuit founder in Greek while Ignatius schooled his
pupil in his signature “Spiritual Exercises.”

canonization process that
can drag on for centuries. Favre, who lived from 1506-1546, was a roommate of St. Francis
Xavier and St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founders of the Jesuits, at the
University of Paris. The Jesuits call Favre Ignatius’

Favre was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1872, but he was never
credited with the required miracle that would formally elevate him to
sainthood. Francis – the first Jesuit elected pope – waived that
requirement and, according to the Vatican, “enrolled him in the
catalogue of the Saints.”

It was the second time last year that Francis has dispensed with
tradition, as is his style. In declaring Pope John XXIII a saint earlier
this year – he'll be formally canonized with Pope John Paul II next
year – Francis waived the required second miracle for the pope who
convened the landmark Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).Speaking to a consortium of Jesuit magazines last year, Francis
praised Favre’s “dialogue with all, even the most remote and even with
his opponents; his simple piety, a certain naivete perhaps, his being
available straightaway, his careful interior discernment, the fact that
he was a man capable of great and strong decisions but also capable of
being so gentle and loving.”

A $10 million gift from an anonymous benefactor will help Marquette University build a new residence at the center of campus for its community of Jesuit priests and boost need-based scholarships for students, Father Robert A. Wild, the university's interim president, announced Monday. Wild said $7.5 million of the gift would be used toward a new Jesuit Residence one block north of the existing building.

The project, which will cost a total of $15 million, also will allow the university to renovate the center of campus with more green space and less surface parking after the existing Jesuit Residence is eventually torn down. The project will be financed entirely from donations. The new building will be built in the 1400 block of W. Wells St., flanked by the Alumni Memorial Union and Schroeder Hall. Construction is to begin after another $7.5 million is raised. The remaining $2.5 million of the anonymous gift will be dedicated to need-based scholarships, a key priority identified in the university's strategic plan unveiled last May, according to Wild, who shared the news Monday in a letter to faculty and staff. In announcing the significance of the gift, Marquette officials made reference to Pope Francis, the first Jesuit to be elected pope. The Jesuits — the Society of Jesus — are the Catholic Church's largest religious order, and are known primarily as educators and advocates for service and social justice.

"Pope Francis has led by example in remarkable ways when it comes to connecting with the people, and our new, more visible and more accessible residence at the center of campus will help us to follow this same leadership style," said Father Jeffrey LaBelle, rector of the Marquette campus Jesuit community.

Marquette's Jesuit community is engaged in public works of service to the university and additional ministries in Milwaukee, including teaching, research and administration. By remaining at the center of campus, LaBelle said, the new facility will underscore the university's identity and tradition as a Catholic, Jesuit institution, and emphasize the Jesuit commitment to higher education. It also will be environmentally friendly, he said. "This significant gift is a tremendous investment in the future of our members of the Society of Jesus who make such profound academic and spiritual contributions to life at Marquette," Wild said.

Equally as important, Wild said, "this generous contribution to support scholarships will help us to continue to provide a world-class, transformative education that is both accessible and affordable."

Throughout his 15-year tenure as Marquette's president, and now as interim president, Wild has stressed the importance of access to higher education, significantly increasing money for student scholarship aid and creating scholarship programs specifically targeted at underserved populations. The $2.5 million dedicated to need-based scholarship aid will help ensure a Marquette education remains affordable and accessible to students, according to Wild, who has been the university's interim president since October but who had plenty of experience in the job prior to that. Marquette's current Jesuit Residence, endearingly known by students, faculty and staff as the "Jes Res," is in the 1400 block of W. Wisconsin Ave., across the street from Raynor Memorial Libraries. It houses 44 members of the Jesuit community at Marquette and was built originally as the Stratford Arms Hotel in 1916.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Paragraph 2357 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that while people with same-sex attraction Scripture clearly “presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity.” “[T]radition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered’. They are contrary to the natural law,” it adds. “They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” This teaching is not mentioned in any of the three videos of the series. The first video in the series starts with an interview with Fr. James Martin, S.J., a prominent US media personality and Jesuit priest in New York, who has made advocating for the normalisation of homosexuality in the Catholic Church a prominent feature of his career. “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,”

Martin says that “many LGBT people” “have very deep spiritual lives and are Christians.” He also denies a conflict between the Catholic Church and the homosexual movement, saying, “It’s not as if you have atheist gays on one side, and religious or spiritual straight people on the other.”

Martin also praises the movement in the Catholic Church in the US and elsewhere that is a feature of many parishes that encourages homosexuals to believe they can be actively “gay” and faithful as Catholics, without contradiction. “The idea that someone could come out and be honest and transparent and open about the way that God created them, I think is terrific. I think it’s something that the Catholic Church can support,” he says. Martin adds, “If a music minister is gay, it doesn’t matter [to other parishioners] if they’re homosexual…it matters that they did a great job at the [liturgy of the] Easter Vigil. “If a spiritual director is gay, it doesn’t matter that they’re homosexual. It matters that they’ve brought people to God through prayer.”

We refuse to die of hunger in Homs. We Christians and Muslims love life and want to live. This was the appeal Fr. Frans van der Lugt sent via YouTube. The Dutch Jesuit has been living in Syria for decades and is the only European left in the besieged city.Activists in the Bustan ad Diwan area of Homs shared the video posted on YouTube by Fr. Frans in recent days. The video shows Fr. Francis as he is also known, speaking from what seems to be a church altar.

“I am here to talk to you about the old city of Homs which has been under siege” for one year and seven months now. “I represent the local Christian communities,” the priest said referring to the 70 or so Christians that remain in Syria’s third major city. Homs supports the revolt and has suffered huge destruction under the country’s repressive regime.

“Christians and Muslims are going through a difficult and painful time and we are faced with many problems. The greatest of these is hunger,” Fr. Frans states. “People have nothing to eat. There is nothing more painful than watching mothers searching for food for their children in the streets.”

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

In 1910 Crosby was forever renamed. The six-year-old Harry Lillis Crosby discovered a full page feature in the Sunday edition ofSpokesman-Review, The Bingville Bugle. The Bugle,
written by humorist Newton Newkirk, was a parody of a hillbilly
newsletter complete with gossipy tidbits, minstrel quips, creative
spelling and mock ads. A neighbor, 15-year-old Valentine Hobart, shared
Crosby's enthusiasm for The Bugle.
Noting Crosby's laugh, she took a liking to him and called him Bingo
from Bingville. The last vowel was dropped and the name shortened to
Bing, which stuck.

In 1917 Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's
"Auditorium" where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day,
including a blackface performer named Al Jolson who spellbound Crosby
with his ad-libbing and spoofs of Hawaiian songs that brought down the
house. Crosby would later say that, "To me, he was the greatest
entertainer who ever lived."

Bing enrolled in Gonzaga College in the fall of 1920 with the intent
to become a lawyer. While in Gonzaga he sent away for a set of mail
order drums. After much practice he soon became good enough and was
invited to join a local band called the "Musicaladers"which was mostly
made up of local high school kids. He made so much money doing this he
decided to drop out of school during his final year, to pursue a career
in show business.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

"In November 1972 Anneliese Michel, a young student at the University of Wurzburg, West Germany, wastaken by her parents to see the parish priest in her hometown of Klimgenberg. She had developed some worrisome signs of abnormal behavior at the university-refusing to eat, flying into violent rages, screaming, and trying to attack those around her-and her parents were deeply concerned. In the priest's view, Anneliese was possessed by demons, and he recommended a ritual exorcism.

As Roman Catholic procedure requires, the case was investigated by a leading authority on exorcism and demonic possession, Father Adolf Rodewyk, an 81-year-old Jesuit. Father Rodewyk agreed with the priest’s diagnosis, and on his recommendation the regional bishop, Father Josef Stangl, gave permission for the exorcism to take place. The exorcists chosen for the task were the Reverend Arnold Renz and the Reverend Ernst Alt.

By then Anneliese had been receiving medical treatment for epilepsy for four years. On July 1, 1976, after several months of exorcism, Anneliese died of malnutrition and dehydration at the age of 23. She weighed 70 pounds. On march 2 1987, the two exorcists and Anneliese’s parents were charged of negligent homicide, on the grounds that they had allowed the girls death without seeking medical help for her. Bishop Stangl, and Father Rodewyk, who seem not to have known that medical was being withheld, were not charged. In April 1978 the two priests were found guilty and were given suspended prison sentences of six months. For the Roman Catholic Church, the death of Anneliese Michel was a nightmare come true, demonstrating the dangers inherent in the ritual of exorcism and the murky distinctions between priestly and medical responsibility.

In Father Rodewyk’s own handbook on possession and exorcism, originally published in 1963 and translated into English under the title Possessed by Satan, priests are urged to consider medical explanations for apparent possession. One section of the book, in fact is titled “ Lets not Always Think of Possession!” Father Rodewyk, outlining the bishop’s responsibilities says that he “may appoint a commission of theologians and physicians to undertake a further investigation” and warns that the exorcists “Must guard against playing the role of physician when encountering physiological symptoms.” He quotes the authoritative Roman Ritual (of exorcism): “ The exorcist should avoid giving or recommending any sort of medication to the possessed; that is the physician’s task.”

Although such statements clearly suggest that physician may sometimes be needed before and during an exorcism, there is no stipulation that a doctor must be in attendance. This deficiency in church procedure was corrected, at least in Germany, after the conviction of the two priests in the Michel case. In May 1978 the German Bishops’ Conference ruled that in future no exorcisms would be permitted unless a doctor was present.Link (here)

"We were at concelebrated Mass with the Holy Father, and we were absolutely forbidden to give Communion in the hands. Communion in the hand, Communion in the hand began, in the hand, with the publication of the Dutch Catechism with nobody's permission except the bishops—in effect, in principle separated themselves from the Holy See. One country after another began then to ask for permission, which the Dutch bishops never asked for, permission to receive Communion in the hand. I was asked by the [U.S.] bishops' conference to write a defense of Communion on the tongue, and I can again talk for hours.

"In the very, very early Church, Communion was given in the hands. However, as the faith of the Christians weakened in the Real Presence, by the 5th, 6th centuries Communion on the tongue became mandatory—remained mandatory until the present century. Behind Communion in the hand—I wish to repeat and make as plain as I can—is a weakening, a conscious, deliberate weakening of faith in the Real Presence.

And the American hierarchy took most—three times, those wanting Communion in the hand kept pushing and pushing. Finally, meantime, I was asked by the vice-president of the Catholic Conference of Bishops to defend Communion on the tongue, which I did. To get enough votes to give Communion in the hand, bishops who were retired, bishops who were dying, were solicited to vote to make sure that the vote would be affirmative in favor of Communion in the hand. Whatever you can do to stop Communion in the hand will be blessed by God.”

Link (here) to read a much larger story at DAVIDLGRAY.INFOLink (here) to read thePublic Statement of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus V. Rev. John D. Whitney, S.J. Provincial Superior

“Therefore, Fr. John
commits a heresy when he writes that it is a sin to deny that homosexual
orientation is unavoidably rooted in our human nature. And he doesn’t
stop there. He goes on in his article to proudly talk about how grand it
was for St. Joseph Church to march in the gay pride parade in 2012. He
easily dismisses the fact that there were sinful acts being committed
during the parade. He offers another circus trick when he makes the
comparison with homosexuals to the unclean animals that Peter saw in his
vision. Then, finally, he completely uncloaks himself as a wolf when he
encourages his flock to join him again this year Seattle’s gay pride
parade.”

“Therefore, Fr. John
commits a heresy when he writes that it is a sin to deny that homosexual
orientation is unavoidably rooted in our human nature. And he doesn’t
stop there. He goes on in his article to proudly talk about how grand it
was for St. Joseph Church to march in the gay pride parade in 2012. He
easily dismisses the fact that there were sinful acts being committed
during the parade. He offers another circus trick when he makes the
comparison with homosexuals to the unclean animals that Peter saw in his
vision. Then, finally, he completely uncloaks himself as a wolf when he
encourages his flock to join him again this year Seattle’s gay pride
parade.”

“Therefore, Fr. John
commits a heresy when he writes that it is a sin to deny that homosexual
orientation is unavoidably rooted in our human nature. And he doesn’t
stop there. He goes on in his article to proudly talk about how grand it
was for St. Joseph Church to march in the gay pride parade in 2012. He
easily dismisses the fact that there were sinful acts being committed
during the parade. He offers another circus trick when he makes the
comparison with homosexuals to the unclean animals that Peter saw in his
vision. Then, finally, he completely uncloaks himself as a wolf when he
encourages his flock to join him again this year Seattle’s gay pride
parade.”

Thursday, January 16, 2014

A talk by Roy Bourgeois, laicized Catholic priest and founder, School of the Americas Watch. Bourgeois has been a prominent voice of conscience within Catholicism for decades. He was profoundly affected by the Vietnam War. In 1972, he was ordained a Maryknoll priest. He then worked among the poor of Bolivia until he was kicked out of the country by its then dictator. Bourgeois was instrumental in founding the School of Americas Watch, an organization dedicated to shutting down the United States Army's School of the Americas because of the school's alleged training in techniques of repression of many officers of foreign military services. In 2012, he was dismissed by the Vatican from the Maryknoll order because of his support for the ordination of women as priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

The
University of Santa Clara’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics is
scheduled to host laicized priest Roy Bourgeois later this month,
according to the Jesuit university’s website.
Former Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois was expelled from the Maryknoll
order by a decree from the Vatican in 2012. Bourgeois had been active
in the movement to get the Church to change her age-old doctrine on a
male-only priesthood. That activity culminated in August 2008, when he
participated in a ceremony to “ordain” a woman as a Catholic priest. He
continued to express public support for this position after the
“ordination,” and was repeatedly warned of the consequences of doing so.
He was excommunicated in November of that same year, and laicized and
expelled from the order on October 4, 2012.
- See more at:
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/2871/Santa-Clara-Univ-Presents-Laicized-Priest-Who-Helped-Ordain-Woman.aspx#sthash.6rw67Q7O.dpuf

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The
300-years-old Sanskrit and Malayalam books penned by famed 18th century
Jesuit priest Fr Johann Ernst Hanxleden, popularly known as Arnos Padre,
will soon get English versions. Fr Arnos, who arrived in south India as part of his missionary work, wrote a number of books including 'Puthan paana' (New Hymn), Devamatavinte Vyakula Prabandha ('poem on the Distress of the Divine Mother'), Umma Parvam (Epic Song on Divine Mother') in regional languages. Indologists
Christophe Vielle and Dr Jean Claude Muller said here the other day
that they were planning to bring out an English version of these books. His 'Chaturandhyam' (mystic epic on 'Four Ends of Man') and 'Janova Parvam' (Epic Song of Saint Genevieve) would also be rendered in English, they said. They
said a team of scholars from Belgium and Luxemburg, in collabouration
with the Arnos Padre Academy here, was planning to promote Arnos Padre's
linguistic and poetic achievements. According to historians,
the priest arrived in Surat in western India in 1700 and later proceeded
to Kerala with the intention of combining missionary work with learning
Sanskrit and Malayalam. He later founded Arnos House and Forane Church at nearby Veloor in 1724 and was the vicar there for over 20 years. During
his stay, he authored many books in Sanskrit and Malayalam and
publicised the importance of Vedic literature in Europe, when learning
Sanskrit was taboo for Non-Brahmins. The church at Veloor and
his house, with priceless murals of immense architectural value, were
declared monuments in May 1994 under the Kerala Ancient Monuments and
Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1968. To promote the place
of activity like Pazhuvil where he died in 1732, Veloor, Ambazhakad and
Sampaloor, very precise Google maps were prepared last year, Vielle
said. They would be converted into tourists' attractions in due
course for indologists, scholars and researchers for knowing India's
culture and heritage, the scholar added.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

The nation's
inspector general said he would continue investigating a prominent
Jesuit under the country's Sedition Act, but he would not question him
again.

Jesuit Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Catholic
Herald, is under investigation for telling the news portal Malaysian
Insider that "Allah" would continue to be used in Malay-language Masses
in the state of Selangor, because it is the Arabic word for God.

In November, the sultan of Selangor, who is also the head of Islam in the state, said only Muslims may use the word "Allah." The
priest's remarks were published by the news portal Jan. 7; on Jan. 8,
the priest was questioned by police after they received dozens of
complaints about his remarks. The following day, Malaysian Insider
reported that the inspector general was continuing his investigation but
would not recall Father Andrew.

The 1948 Sedition Act is
designed to prevent acts of discontent, resistance or rebellion against
the government and includes as an offense uttering "any seditious
words." It defines as seditious "any act, speech, words, publication or
other thing ... having a seditious tendency," which could include
promoting "feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or
classes of the population of Malaysia." For years, the Catholic
Herald has been involved in litigation over its use of the word "Allah"
to refer to God in its Malay-language edition. In late 2009, the High
Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled that the Home Ministry's order banning
certain uses of the word was illegal. The court also said the word
"Allah" is not exclusive to Islam.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Pope Francis’ brief homily was largely on the recently canonized companion of St. Ignatius, Peter Faber. But the Pope also had some remarkable things to say about what he thought was the heart of the Jesuit (and hence his own) vocation. The Pope’s relationship with the general of the Order, Aldo Nicholas, is cordial.This homily, however, might be called not an exhortation to Franciscan poverty, Dominican preaching, Benedictine “ora et labora,” or even Jesuit obedience, but to Augustinian “restlessness.” Almost everyone, in any age, who reads St. Augustine, including popes, is struck by his famous passage that reads: “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” Such a powerful passage is peculiar to no religious order, or even to any religion or philosophy, but is the heritage of every human being who is aware of what goes on in his own soul.

“We Jesuits wish to be etched in the name of Jesus,” Pope Francis continues, using the words of St. Ignatius: “This means to think as He does, to will the good with Him, to see as He sees, and to walk with Him. It means to do what he has done and with the same sentiments, with the passion of His Cross.”

The Pope, following St. Paul, does not present an easy doctrine. “The
heart of Christ is the heart of God, who, through love, has ‘emptied’
Himself out. Every one of us Jesuits who follow Jesus ought to be
disposed to ‘empty’ himself. We are called to lower ourselves: to be of
those who have emptied themselves.”Link (here) to read the rest of Fr. James Schall's fantastic article

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Pope Francis has approved the decision taken by the Jesuit’s superior
general, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás and five other members of the Jesuits’
international council to dismiss Fr. John Dear for being ‘obstinately
disobedient to the lawful order of Superiors in a grave matter.’

Fr. Adolfo Nicolás states, Fr Dear “was duly informed … that his
failure to obey the command that he return to the specified house of the
Order by a specified date would be cause for his dismissal from the
Society of Jesus.”

Fr John Dear is famous in the USA for his
protesting a wide range of issues, including U.S. policies on Latin
America, nuclear weapons development, and the cooperation of Jesuit
educational institutions with American military recruiting programs such
as the ROTC. He is also a regular columnist in the dissenting US
journal, The National Catholic Reporter. In an emailed statement to NCR Monday, the provincial of the
Maryland province, Jesuit Fr. James Shea said Fr. Dear was dismissed
from the order as of Dec. 20 “following an extended period of dialogue
between the leadership of the Maryland Province and John regarding his
ministerial assignment and time he requested to discern his
vocation. The process was initiated in the fall of 2012 after John
declined to return to his Province to live in a Jesuit community while
continuing his ministry of peace and social justice, including lecturing
and writing’.

This week, with a heavy heart, I am officially leaving the Jesuits after 32 years. After three years of discernment, I’m leaving because the Society of Jesus in the U.S. has changed so much since I entered in 1982 and because my Jesuit superiors have tried so hard over the decades to stop my work for peace, most recently, when my provincial ordered me to Baltimore but gave me no assignment and, I felt, encouraged me to leave, as many other superiors have done in the past. According to my provincial, the Society of Jesus in the U.S. has renounced its commitment to “the faith that does justice.” It’s also deepened its financial involvement with the culture of war, and decreased its work with the poor in favor of serving through its universities and high schools. Given this change and the lack of support and at times censure which I have endured over the years, and its debilitating effect on my health, I realized I could no longer stay. This decision was sparked three years ago when Archbishop Michael Sheehan of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in New Mexico removed my priestly faculties because he objected to the prayer vigils for peace and against nuclear weapons development that I was leading at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birthplace of nuclear weapons. He had received many complaints regarding my peace efforts over the years from the local pastor in Los Alamos and other Catholics who work in Los Alamos building nuclear weapons.

After this, Fr. James Shea, my Jesuit provincial, the head of the Maryland Province, ordered me to leave New Mexico and return to Baltimore, to be near province headquarters. Instead of supporting my work for peace, he was embarrassed by it. I moved to Baltimore where the Archbishop there gave me full priestly faculties as a priest in good standing, though I was not given an assignment by my provincial.

Over the course of several meetings, I felt he was urging me to stop my work for justice and peace and leave the Society. He said, for example, that nothing I have done over the last ten years has had anything to do with the Society of Jesus.

He explained that the Society of Jesus has renounced Fr. Pedro Arrupe’s groundbreaking vision of justice and the documents of the 31st and 32nd General Congregations, which call for a radical commitment to justice.

It no longer advocates for justice or works for justice, he said. The Maryland Province has closed all its projects that serve the poor. From now on, he said, because the number of Jesuits is in sharp decline, U.S. Jesuits will only serve in our 25 universities and 25 high schools. This direction, it seems to me, differs vastly from the Order I entered in 1982, with its visionary call to “accompany Jesus as he carries the cross in the struggle for justice.” If I stayed, he said, I would have to work in one of the Jesuit high schools. In recent years, I’ve been saddened to see many Jesuits involved in the U.S. military, our schools deepen their involvement in the U.S. military, and Jesuits permitted to work even in places such as the Los Alamos Labs, West Point, and Abu Graib prison in Iraq. As far as I can tell, Jesuits who work for the military can continue their work. I’ve been especially saddened that the Jesuits at Loyola University in Baltimore have been allowed to hold an annual Mass where after communion, they bring their nearly 100 ROTC cadets onto the altar to profess to the Blessed Sacrament the ROTC oath “to kill the enemies of the United States.” I told my provincial that I consider this blasphemy, a mockery of Jesus and the Eucharist, but he said he had no problem with it. So after five months in Baltimore, as a priest in good standing, I moved back to New Mexico, went on a leave of absence from the Jesuits, continued my discernment, asked to leave and this week have now left the Society. I’m still a Catholic priest, but have no priestly faculties. I doubt that any U.S. bishop will give me faculties, because most also object to my work against war and injustice, so I’m not sure if I will remain a priest.

Monday, January 6, 2014

On Saturday, January 4 the men’s basketball team of the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco faced off against the Pepperdine Waves at USF’s War Memorial gym. The game was also billed as an “LGBTQ Community Celebration.” The “Upcoming Events” page on the USF Dons website read “Featuring Performances by the SF Gay Men’s Chorus and Cheer SF. LGBTQ community leaders will be recognized. For $10 tickets use promo code EQUALITY at checkout.” Since the “LGBTQ Community” defines itself by fornication with persons of the same-sex, an “LGBTQ Community Celebration” is by definition a celebration of sin.

"There are situations where it is irresponsible not to perform abortion," the Jesuit wrote on New Year's Day on his blog, which is connected with the Spanish daily El Pais.

Critics accuse the Jesuits of being abortion apologists. All knew it, but no one has taken action. Although Father Masiá is talking about extreme cases, the context of his Speeches on abortion serve at the same time for the justification of prenatal infanticide. Thus the criticism of Info Catolica and the Spanish church historian and Catholic blogger Francisco de la Cigoña on the most recent blog entry by Father Masiá.

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.